10-11-2021, 06:48 AM
Gurus,
The Valid design is generally reliable and quiet. The design has two linear bearings on each side of the room and another in the floor mechanism.
The bearings are made by INA (a German company, I think). They are precision components and work by having a track of large ball bearings that carry the weight. The bearings also have a small tube on the bottom side that return the ball bearings to the top. If the steel bearings get rust on them, they don’t fit into the small tube and eventually the tube ruptures and lets all the ball bearings out. (Not good)
This is a picture of a similar bearing to what goes in the Valid slide. You can see how the ball bearings are arranged.
The symptoms of a bearing going bad are:
1). The slide shudders or jumps when moving in or out
2). The slide has any sort of grinding noise when moving.
A big cost of replacing a bearing is the cost of disassembling the room to get to the bearings. Be sure to check the other bearings when you replace one.
Bill
The Valid design is generally reliable and quiet. The design has two linear bearings on each side of the room and another in the floor mechanism.
The bearings are made by INA (a German company, I think). They are precision components and work by having a track of large ball bearings that carry the weight. The bearings also have a small tube on the bottom side that return the ball bearings to the top. If the steel bearings get rust on them, they don’t fit into the small tube and eventually the tube ruptures and lets all the ball bearings out. (Not good)
This is a picture of a similar bearing to what goes in the Valid slide. You can see how the ball bearings are arranged.
The symptoms of a bearing going bad are:
1). The slide shudders or jumps when moving in or out
2). The slide has any sort of grinding noise when moving.
A big cost of replacing a bearing is the cost of disassembling the room to get to the bearings. Be sure to check the other bearings when you replace one.
Bill
Bill Johnson
Birmingham, Alabama